What is a Metropolitan University and how does USM plan to make the transition? This blog post consists of quotes pulled from USM’s Metropolitan University Steering Group’s (MUSG) Final Report that describe ‘the metropolitan university ideal’ and highlight MUSG’s plan of what they hope to accomplish over the next five years. –“USM is currently undergoing strategic re-purposing and restructuring to become Maine’s Metropolitan University (MU).”

“The Metropolitan University Steering Group (MUSG)…finds it to be a virtual necessity in the current setting of higher education in Maine and nationally. We believe USM must either become a university committed to engaged teaching, learning, scholarship, creation, and service through community partnerships of mutual benefit, or cease to be.”“…this transition will not be achieved without significant new investment to sharpen the identity of USM, focus its organizational culture, and return it to its historic roots as an extension of the community needs and aspirations.”“It is a vision of USM firmly grounded in the fundamental principles of academic excellence, engaged teaching and learning, and enduring partnerships for student succesMes.”–Barbara Holland, internationally-known scholar of metropolitan universities, has observed:“USM…has similar challenges to all regional/metropolitan universities: it is not clearly a research-dominated university nor is it a teaching-dominated college. It is a hybrid of these two core academic roles. Yet, national academic culture seems to reward and respect institutions that do one of these functions as a dominant identity. With a hybrid identity and a ‘traditional’ academic culture, conflict and confusion are inevitable activities for faculty who try to push identity one way or another.The Metropolitan University identity has emerged in the last 30 years as a respected and valued identity for public urban-located institutions that seek to do well in both research and teaching, largely through a focus on their metropolitan region. This is a positive and exciting path forward for USM.” 1–“It is now time to focus on the culture and to cultivate opportunities for growth.”–Along the way, we are cautioned by MU colleagues to remain ever-vigilant that:“The lure and familiarity of traditional models of higher education are powerful…The traditional university has been accepted for hundreds of years; the metropolitan university model is brand new by comparison.” –MUSG strongly embraces and recommends the following vision statement for USM, to be achieved five years hence:“USM is an integral and indispensable partner to the communities it serves, and takes great pride in the energetic support of its many, engaged partners. Engaged teaching, learning, scholarship, creation, and service thrive in a seamless organizational structure, ensuring an integrated and fully aligned student pathway from recruitment to graduation. We are an accessible and affordable source of transformative higher education for our students, a birthplace for first and new careers, an incubator for applied research and economic development, and a training ground for public service. We are Maine’s Metropolitan University.”–“To realize this vision and become Maine’s Metropolitan University, USM will need to:

Re-invent itself as a community-based institution of higher education, one that invites and welcomes the community onto campus and extends its classrooms, scholarship, and related activities into the community through mutually beneficial and enduring partnerships

In the process, become known throughout the region and the Northeast as a leader in merging academic excellence and innovation.”

–“USM undertook a facilitated “Direction Package” process to assess its future identity, needs, and resource allocations. From this process emerged a widespread consensus, internal and external, that USM would best build its future upon its historic strengths and assets, by joining the national movement of “metropolitan universities” endeavoring to strengthen and transform their communities through engaged teaching and learning and mutually beneficial partnerships.”“The question is whether USM is any longer needed – whether what it provides may not, in fact, be gained more readily from other, better-resourced and more resilient institutions. A close look at USM’s history, however, provides a ready answer to the question.”